My first triathlon - June 2nd, 2001

Well, I finally did it -- I finished my first triathlon and thus I achieved my goal I set a year ago :) It was a pretty small (almost wimpy) triathlon, but it was a triathlon all the same. And as this was what I trained for all this year, it deserves its own page, I thought...

The distances for this race were moderate, especially the swim part: 0.25km swim (11 laps in a pool), 15km bike, 5km run. The terrain was flat and there was no wind. All in all, ideal conditions for a first race, although, just 2 days earlier it seemed that the weather might get really in the way: We had a series of record temperature days in CA in the past week. On Thursday the temperature in Sacramento went up to 106 deg F! But we were lucky -- on Friday it significantly cooled down (over 20 degrees in one day) and on Saturday the conditions were ideal.

Even so I feared I would not have an ideal race, because I had problems with allergies lately, I had just returned from a trip to the East coast, and my body was still adapting to the time change. In addition to all this I had a very exhausting drive to Davis (4 hours drive for 110 miles because everybody going to Lake Tahoe or Reno for the weekend uses the same route) Under all these circumstances I didn't expect a great result -- I just wanted to finish the race.

I achieved that goal and surprise, surprise, I achieved even more! The reason for this success was that the race was 1. quite small (about 120 participants) and 2. that there was another, bigger triathlon in Sacramento at the same time. A lot of the stronger competitors probably were at that other race.

I ended up finishing in 4th place and even winning my age group! (35-39 year old/male). In case you wonder: yes there was more than one male in my age group ;) Needless to say, I'm quite happy with this result: a gold medal for my age group win (and nothing for my fourth place).

And it didn't look good at all, at first. I had a very bad start at the swim and I'm a slow swimmer anyway (it's quite depressing when you are only half-way done and the first few people hop out of the pool). I ended up being the last one in the pool from my group (we started in small groups, 10 minutes apart). I was actually so slow that when I arrived in the transition area, a few people cheered and applauded because they thought I was the fastest guy from the next start group :(

Out of the pool you run across the basketball court...	...out of the court turn right...
...again right...	... and you reach the transition area (this photo was taken early in the morning, before most people had set up)

Totally exhausted from the swim (something went really wrong in that pool and I'm still not sure what it was -- I did the same 11 laps twice with no problem and much faster the evening before) I changed into my bike shoes. It took me forever to do T1 (transition 1). But then I was on the bike and I pushed hard... The bike course was about 9.6 miles, out and back on a flat road with almost no traffic. There was one aid station where I did not stop to save time.

My bike is not a super triathlon bike, but it's an OK bike I feel very comfortable on. So I was able to catch 4 people from my start group during the bike leg. T2 went really well and fast (under 1 minute). The run itself was quite pleasant, along a mostly shady path. It could have been marked a bit better -- a few times I thought I had taken a wrong turn. One guy caught me during the run, and he was so much faster that I didn't even try to keep up with him. And then I was at the finish already with my first triathlon under my belt. It sure felt good.

I was very surprised when I saw the results and found out that I had finished 4th. I had silently hoped I might achieve something in my age group, considering how small the race was, but I sure did not expect to win my age group...

The official time for me was 55:05. The winning time was 48:49. Here is page full of results.

Now there is something strange here, because according to my own clock my finishing time was 1:03:58. So I asked a few other people about their times and it seems that all the official times were off by about the same amount. The ranking appears to be correct, even if the times aren't.

My split times were: Swim (0.25k in a pool): 6:04, Bike (15km): 30:30, Run (5km): 24:13.

The bike and run times are pretty good for me, although I certainly hope to improve them in the future. I'll definitely need to still work a lot on my swimming, though. The overall result of the race shows again just how important the bicyle leg is in a triathlon. As it is the longest part of the race, speed in the bike leg makes the biggest difference (this race where the bike and run leg take almost the same time, is a bit unusual) So if you are not a fast swimmer (me! me! me!) it's better to swim slower, avoid burning out in the pool and use the conserved energy to win the time back on the bicycle. That's one of the reason why triathletes tend to spend so much money on aerodynamic bicycles...

Below a couple more photos from the event...

No, this is not my bike. But it's a very nice triathlon bike, that's for sure...	I'm sure that tuning my bike right before the race helped a lot!

On my way home I discovered that the JellyBelly (jelly bean factory) is very close to Davis. So I dropped in for a tour and free samples (yum yum). Of course I didn't have to count calories right after finishing a triathlon so I sampled almost every single type of chocolate and jelly bean they make :)

So it definitely was a good first race for me. I hope there will be many more triathlons for me in the future. But before these I'll have to get ready for the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia, BRAG (in 2 weeks) and then for the Peachtree Road Race (a 10k run) in Atlanta. Stay tuned!